Video Game Designing History

Only months after the Apollo XI mission, Lexington, Massachusetts student Jim Storer creates Lunar Lander-- a moon landing simulation game-- on his high school's PDP-8. Variations of this text-based game are developed for other computers, and eventually an arcade version.

Scientific American publishes the rules for LIFE. In this simulation isolated or overcrowded cells die, while others live and reproduce. Hackers rush to implement it on their computers, watching beautiful patterns emerge and change. https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQPWhO1-jcg8o8qwSNucWf5BVAgJfb1N_80IK0GZQouJaI25_GFsg

Minnesota college students Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger create Oregon Trail, a simulation of pioneers westward trek. Originally played on a single teletype machine, Rawitsch later brought the game to the Minnesota Educational Computer Consortium which distributed it nationally. https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRjdQKrJPFe_hDMNm5s86-LgTZXy78EBL-0yiqMGdrTiVqeeMCL

Nolan Bushnell and Al Alcorn of Atari develop an arcade table tennis game. When they test it in Andy Capps Tavern in Sunnydale, California, it stops. Why? Because people played it so much it jammed with quarters. Pong, an arcade legend, is born.

A year after launching the first computer magazine, Creative Computing, David Ahl publishes 101 BASIC Computer Games, allowing gamers to become an ancient Sumerian in HMRABI, find the creatures hiding in a grid in MUGWMP, and general the North versus the South in CIVILW.

Two decades before Doom, Maze Wars introduces the first-person shooter by taking players into a labyrinth of passages made from wire-frame graphics.

Don Wood's version of the pioneering text-based game, Adventure, plunges players into an imaginary world of caves and treasures. Inspired by Dungeons and Dragons, it paves the way for Zork and thousands of other computer role-playing games. https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQAg8tJbvu_7UwrbhlitkDz1V0JGahchCaKQd-iJUmHsSnUVEZI

Taito's Space Invaders descends on Japan, causing shortage of 100-yen coins. Within a year, 60,000 Space Invaders machines in the United States tempt Americans to spend millions of quarters driving back the seeming unstoppable ranks of attacking aliens.

A missing slice of pizza inspires Namco's Toru Iwatani to create Pac-Man, which goes on sale in July 1980. Two years later, Ms. Pac-Man strikes a blow for gender equality by becoming the best-selling arcade game of all time. That year a version of Pac-Man for Atari 2600 becomes a console hit. https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ2K2CSxIQtPFi9ShqrXIFan3V4fnRVxt6rFGYCm8noiq7QaLJIQA

Video game fans go ape over Nintendo's Donkey Kong, featuring a character that would later become world-famous: Jumpman. Never heard of him? That's because he's better known as Mario-- the name he took when his creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, makes him the star of a later game by Nintendo. https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQb5gHcNxGJYdExl50wtlNlMJLD8fWNOwr7ry1RncDHm3ptKt2pXQ

Disney taps into the video game craze by releasing the movie Tron. An arcade game featuring many of the contests from the movie also becomes a hit. https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRrXre33blpAZ9aTFdNq_q00XJhzdlBaYoOUgHSoRu0U5Zbu_G9JrD1dgwh

Multiplayer play takes a huge step forward with Dan Bunten's M.U.L.E. In the game, players compete to gather the most resources while saving their colony on the planet of Irata. (Atari backwards) https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSPwWzmO6QnhzDfkQMN_gr0fmAtrinPTLs3v6CIppPsVBw0gFGRwg

Russian mathematician Alexey Pajitnov creates Tetris, a simple but addictive puzzle game. The game leaks out from behind the Iron Curtain, and four years later, Nintendo bundles it with every new Game Boy. https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT4kfHgSd6wgCtSx603VmLc-4KdT-fXlzsSaL3WXYVyhn9V8gxqH0_26SDm

The emerging educational software market leaps ahead with the introduction of The Learning Company's Reader Rabbit program. The educational computer business mushrooms with the introduction of CD-ROMs in the 1900s, but crashes with the rise of the Internet. https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT9mm67W3yKAPIFGmAiu7EHiYdcHgFbmD09G9IH0c4Y6W2Vqe3LmKd58zvB

It's a good year for fantasy role-playing games, as Shigeru Miyamoto creates Legend of Zelda, SSI wins the video game license for Dungeons and Dragons, and Sierra's Leisure Suit Larry gives players a different kind of adult role playing game. https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSOrfsoxMKGcOWKX64Mx2vtzDzTf5pnsWijCdEZzpzQ96mSxNR8

John Madden Football introduces gridiron realism to computer games, making this game-- and its many console sequels-- perennial best-sellers. https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS9J8CoPcSVjatowi6klu5bsrReAt2TWRaZckKOUxrLjTwR3N53

Microsoft bundles a video game version of the classic card game solitaire with Windows 3.0 Millions of users who would not normally pick up a game console find they enjoy playing computer games. Solitaire becomes one of the most popular electronic games ever and provides a gaming model for quick, easy-to-play, casual games like Bejeweled. https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSR_zqtNY95cM25xZMDfO2I2hYVWrZlN2BnVzJbXwURn_j5H3VI

Sega needs an iconic hero for its Genesis system and finds it in Sonic the Hedgehog. gamers, especially in the United States, snap up Sega systems and love the little blue guy's blazing speed and edgy attitude. https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTzb59wOS_5tsZGa8v--JwJaV_ST2oMUWsyuGGxbpjX47VJ9k_H

Westwood Studios' Dune II establishes the popularity of real-time strategy games that require players to act as military leaders deploying their resources and forces on the fly in order to defeat opponents. https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSDcaz3lbImdy_OvVwgMeDyL9nBNFV0oH2_ysfZHxDS40HsJLpHRA

Concern about bloodshed in games such as Mortal Kombat prompts United States Senate hearings on video game service. The controversy riles the industry and prompts the creation of a video game rating system. Ironically, that same year the game Doom popularizes "first person shooters." https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQNC_Anol9Q_ApqU1euY55O7DEmceZw7xvb8GObHgqTcNQAb2Sz

Blizzard releases Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, a real-time strategy game that introduces millions of players to the legendary world of Azeroth. https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqq-BbzomwYuv8Gm2eo2eMzZjejZIpPIoMq_PNh5kjpbdhSepU

Lara Croft debuts as the star of Eidos's adventure game Tomb Raider. Players love her, but critics charge that she's an example of sexism in video games. https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTpNd178_GJq5bgRIFVV5e9DKn_8oO4SZXR056bORifp2qzR2XC

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time transports players to the richly imagined world of Hyrule, full of engaging characters, thought-provoking puzzles, and the most memorable musical instrument to ever appear in a video game.

Sony Online Entertainment's Everquest leads hundreds of thousands of users to join guilds, fight monsters, and level up in the multiplayer online world of Norrath. https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS-92oaxoDTuCtm21hQMmBgk6z67-28hGmWotZf1QXJZHf5FVoc

Will Wright's The Sims models in real life. It is not the first simulation game-- Utopia on Intellivision, Peter Molyneaux's Populous, Sid Meier's Civilization, and Wright's own SimCity preceded it-- but it becomes the best-selling computer game ever and the most popular game with female players. https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRfk9RlvPdewtKTEIGQ2_Le3dt5DlTq7FpDjWfdNYGgzCR86LEofw

While walking through the aisles of an electronics store, Lt. Colonel Casey Wardynski conceives of a U.S. Army branded video game. In 2002, the army releases America's Army to help recruit and communicate with a new generation of electronic gamers. https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSml_5eDbcA_hc6qrmekp5uQIwYBOglaJLj-HfS_5pwlcggB7h2Bw

Valve energizes PC gaming with its release of Steam. The digital distribution platform allows players to download, play, and update games.

Grab your guitar, microphone, bass, or drums, and start playing Rock Band. That's what millions of would-be musicians did with Harmonix's hit title. https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQPR3ef6vAvGRZPmUiiscpBVEIAJHtqljg1rQ093iHpdGmXLua1

More than 10 million worldwide subscribers make World of Warcraft the most popular massively multiplayer online game. MMOs create entire virtual universes for players and redefine how we play, learn, and relate to each other. https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSPYacHpEB29_JjG4bSLSce3EmFhbWbMla5u350sk17NCGsmMgy1w

Social games like Farmville and mobile games like Angry Birds shake up the games industry. Millions of people who never would have considered themselves gamers now while away hours playing games on new platforms like Facebook and the iPhone. https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ123qMsN-273RhEpH8qcXdOYUXgmz6A5492W2mT1OvIHhvqIOuwA

The indie game movement comes of age with the tremendous popularity of Minecraft, the addictive brick-building game from Swedish developer Markus Persson. https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSydmhDcCJacWjFr-LbjT-BAYdVcPhgTxQheo_W7T_hduJfeBfq

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim showcases the beauty, majesty, and massiveness of video games as players explore a seemingly endless, beautifully rendered fantasy world.